


Chained, Bound, Yet Not Broken

by k_yuuki



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 15:57:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11672355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_yuuki/pseuds/k_yuuki
Summary: Skull hated being an Arcobaleno. He was sure that the others felt the same, yet at the same time, he was not sure they understood him. Once he sorted all these feelings crap out though, Skull was going to enjoy it, no matter what. Screw you, Checker Face.When Life gives you lemon, make lemonade.Straight after the Fated Day.





	Chained, Bound, Yet Not Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t even know why I am writing this. I just read a bunch of Skull centered fics and decided to write one. Now I get a new favorite character.

He hated this.

This as in the feeling of being caged and no one seemed to understand. Not even the other Arcobaleno. Skull felt like he was being used and there was no way out.

This kind of perception turned out to be normal in the outside world. He was a stuntman, one that fed on a lot of adrenaline to even feel like he was alive. He had fought, struggled, _challenged_ Life itself and many times skirted around, and had flirted with Death more than a couple of times. His childhood live was by no means normal, yet he had broken through that circle of abuse.

Just to end up in another cycle of it, a worse one even.

What was the idiom for it again? Out of the frying pan into the fire?

He had been suspicious to be invited mysteriously meeting the strongest seven of their generation. He just looked at the other 6 and his first impression of them was: _Wow, I’m surrounded by bunch of murderers and I’m the only one who has never killed before_. It was a weird way of being a minority and he hated it. Because he had always been an outcast with freakish hair and eyes color, one who survived on the street without anyone supported him, or being hurt until nobody could not recognize him and still _survive_. He hated that he was yet again an outcast in a group that he was supposed to _belong_ to. It was a challenge being with the other six who cared little for him except for Luce and Fon and on rare occasion Viper and Lal.

( _He loved challenges though. One day, he would make them_ **_accept_ ** _him for what he was.)_

Why did he thought he even qualified again?

He did not. He was just too prideful to back down from the challenge given by Reborn and Lal. How stupid he was.

Because if he just listened to the voice on the back of his head like he did when he was on the street, he would not be a _baby_ right now.

But nooo! He was too used to ignore it for he did that daily on top of his motorcycle and now he was not even 3 feet tall and how the hell was he going to do with his motorbike? How was he going to climb down the mountain? What was he going to do with his life? He had no protection. He had no self defense training. He did not know how to survive this violent life on a toddler’s body.

_He just want to **belong** somewhere. To be accepted for being who he was._

The Mafia World had always been hunting for more Flame users and he was just slapped with the title of strongest Cloud Flame user on the head. He might just painted himself red with a big target on his back when they knew he was a civilian and he could not fight.

Furthermore, he could not do his main source of income anymore. He was still in his late teen, with no enormous amount of savings to back him. His Italian was not even _that_ good!

He was so close to break down and he still did not know how to make head or tails of his situation.

Yet, even amidst of confusion, frustration, and whatever the hell he was right now, one thing he was sure. He would not be chained down even more. Whatever the Mafia world wanted him to do, he refused to just bow down and accepted that as his reality.

The Strongest Cloud.

_What prestige_ , they whispered. _What power_ , they reveled.

Then they all looked at him and scoffed, belittled him. The _weakest_ of their group they had complained as Skull could not pull his own weight. Even if he was indeed the strongest Cloud of their generation. Even when they knew Clouds were full of proud bastards and loathed to be bound. Even though he was someone in the entertainment side rather than whatever the others were.

**_Murderers_** _, that was what they were. Skull had skirted around the legal stuffs since he was young, yet he would rather to kill himself than taking another live._

This world was cruel. He knew that since the beginning, even though sometimes, he pretended not to see that truth. He had convinced himself enough to be blinded by it. To believe in humanity non-existent kindness.

“ _Believe in others, if you look at them, respected them, be kind with them, they will return the same to you,_ ” a kind voice rang behind his head. So soft and warm that he felt his sight blurred by just remembering it, before the memories of what next haunted as his nights even ten years later.

Inhaling deep, he closed his eyes, still thinking the next best action to do.

They were lied to. The words of ‘ _I Prescelti Sette_ ’ hooked them to gather, proud to be called _The Strongest Seven_. The rewards blinded them to stay: money, fame, power. His other companions that shared the title and now youthful looks were starting to scatter with betrayed expressions on their faces. Only Luce looked guilty.

Ah, she could see the future, could she not? She knew this was happening but did not mention this to any of them. She must have a good reason for that, but Skull was in no way forgiving that just yet. The teen was not one that held resentment long, even though he was easy to rile up.

He was going to forgive her, wasn’t he?

She was pregnant too. It would be hell to even think what was going to happen to the baby. Was the end worth it? For her to give up her happiness with her child? To be a baby nonetheless.

Could they even grow up or was they stuck being a baby?

‘ _Stop sympathizing with her!_ ’ his consciousness blared. It was disorienting enough to sort through what and how and why right now without having to involve others. Why there were no manuals stuck with them? It would help a lot with figuring what to do next.

He twisted his head around. There was a blond guy he had seen following Lal around was now small sized like them with a baby blue pacifier on his neck, while Lal was saddled with a murky grey one. Skull blinked in confusion, noting that down. Did the Man with Iron Hat accepted this stalker more than Lal who was with them for the jobs?

Well, it was theirs to sort out, not his problem.

Verde was angry, his face was red as he tried to stand up and walked away. Humiliated. For one with the smartest mind between them and he could not see this happening. Skull would bet all his entire savings he was trying to rationalize what was happening to them and the science behind it. Skull’s own brain had already catalogued the phenomena as magic with no amount of reasons could move him from that. It was, in a way, magical. How would they explain people of different ages and genders being suddenly all babies again in the same night?

The sun started to rise high on top of his head, not caring what was going on with the now dubbed Arcobaleno. He looked at the so called strongest hitman.

Reborn’s expression mirrored Verde’s. He must feel disgraced. And Skull could not bring himself to care. The man, now toddler, had kicked him around like he was some sort of an unbreakable toy. Threw him away just to play-torture him a few times before shove him out to the garbage bin just to repeat the cycle again and again.

He had enough with cycle.

Their Storm was not as serene looking as he always did. Fon’s disbelieving looks was almost enough for him to compute Skull’s own mixed feelings. He was from the Chinese Triad he had said. In their personal moments, the teenager had braved himself to ask why he tangled himself to the Underworld and stay there as Fon did not seem as a person that liked that world.

Fon had even revealed that he had someone to protect as an explanation for his stay with the Triad. To protect from or to protect with Skull was not sure, but one thing he was certain, Fon now had to protect the said someone with his baby form.

Viper… was gone. The Mist had been his best friend out of the other team members. For him to just gone without saying a word just like that hurt. A lot. It reminded him of that woman’s betrayal.

Deciding his course of action, he walked (well, he _tried_ , but in the end he had to enforce his short thin legs with Cloud Flame to successfully arrive at his intended destination without crawling) to Luce. It _hurt_ to use his Flame. That was not new, but it was not the same kind of pain he was used to. He was usually _in_ pain when using the Fire, not the opposite.

Their Sky instantly angled her head down. Shame, guilt, regret flashed on her face. She dared not to look at his eyes.

Skull shifted. Struggled to free his head from his helmet, a feat that the teen had never experienced before and the not unreasonable anger almost lashed out. He was not a person who had anger issues, it was yet another new occurrence and Skull was not sure if he liked it.

Gently, he took the pregnant woman’s hand, enveloped them with his Cloud Flame, indirectly telling her it was _okay_.

He was not one to be tied down, but he had made exceptions before: he was tied with his now unusable bike, he was tied with his circus, he was tied with _her_ , and now he did the same with the Sky.

Luce snapped her head up, eyes wide with disbelief and _hope_. It was painful to see this strong, terrifying woman who was a Don of her own powerful, infamous Famiglia almost burst into tears just by something that she should be used to. Skull knew what he was doing: he was declaring his loyalty. He could hear the others’ outrages at his action, but he had his reasons. Even though he was a just civilian, one with no intention to join the Mafia, he had took a big leap from just being betrayed by this very woman.

“I am not really one to hold grudges,” he declared. “Nor I am one that can stand my ground and fight to protect you. I am weak in physical fight. My strong points were my Flame, with that my inability to stay down, and acrobatic stunts, even that is something I cannot do anymore.”

Luce flinched.

“I am accepting you as my Sky,” he continued on, ignoring the others’ disapproval. This was the best course of action in his mind. He would rather be _her Cloud_ rather than other Mafia’s. He did not know much about Flames, but he had heard about the forced _Harmonization_ and _Discordant_ enough to be scared of it. Would he even strong enough to repel their Sky as the strongest Cloud? Skull did not know, but he would not want to take chances.

“But I am not giving you my allegiance,” stated him. The Giglio Nero Don gave him a confused look. He gave her a sad smile. “I didn’t want anything to do with the Mafia and I still don’t.”

Reborn scoffed at his naivety, Skull forged on. “But I had trusted you before. You are a great Sky. You cared for our dysfunctional ragtag of a group and that is more than enough for me. I know you still care for us that you feel guilty so there must be a reason for why we’re babies right now.”

Tears flowed down Luce’s young face. “There is,” she stated.

He waited for her to elaborate. “There are 3 set of powers that protects this Earth…”

The story flowed. Luce told them about Checker Face, her Ancestor and what their history was. The _Tri-Ni-Set_ , cursed rainbow babies, Vongola and Mare rings, what their duties were now.

He was yet again bound by another invisible chain.

Skull did not know what to think about that. The first response was to lash out. But that died down as Luce said about her life expectancy caused by being the Sky Arcobaleno. She was going to die not even a decade later if she was _lucky_ and her own daughter was going to be burdened by the Curse and her granddaughter was the next.

Luce was giving this burden to her legacy. Skull just wanted to bashed the World and Fate for being so cruel with her family.

_“When life gives you lemon, you make a lemonade,” advised the woman as she ruffled his bright colored hair. At the time, his name was not Skull yet, he knew that Life could be cruel but he did not have the experience of the woman’s cruelty. Thus, Not-Skull let out a whine and setting himself comfortably in her lap instead of raging at her._

_“What does that mean?” Not-Skull pouted. He was asking an unimportant question, and that it was unfair that the other parents kept saying bad stuff behind their backs because she was a single Mother of a child that not even hers even if they have similar coloring._

_She let out a laugh, one that he missed the most years later, hoping they would come back to the happy days instead of a world of constant pain. “It means, even though you have difficulties, you will make the most of it. Life is always hard, to enjoy them, it means you have to just appreciate what you have, not what you_ **_may_ ** _have.”_

_Not-Skull let out a disgruntled sound._

_“And that means, you just have to be happy that you have me as a Mom!”_

Oh, even years later, Skull had regretted not to take that advice to heart.

Skull let out a groan after Luce finished explaining. “So… as long as we have this pacifier we aren’t going to grow up? Is this curse permanent? I am already halfway immortal, are we going to live forever as long as we have this thing or are we going to die looking like a baby?”

Luce gave an even more remorseful expression. That was not good.

“I was… prohibited to say anything on that.”

Oh, _great_. It was probably more horrible than whatever his brain could came up with. His imagination was good, just not to that spectrum. His brain has been honed to make people _laugh_ dammit, not whatever this was.

“No offense, but your uncle was a dick. He could just come to us and _say_ it, you know,” Skull complained.

“Would you accept it?” Luce countered with pained tone.

The thing was, Skull was pretty messed up in the head, probably because having too many concussions for his stunts. Or maybe his conscience was that skewed compared to theirs. It was the _Fate_ of the World! “Yeah, probably,” he replied nonchalantly.

“Speak for yourself,” Verde scoffed. And the others grumbled in agreement or stayed in silence.

_See ?_ Their ways of thinking were too extreme. Really, if they rejected this burden, what would happen to the World they lived in? If this burden could only be worn by the Strongest Seven, he would not be happy, but he would do it as the lesser of two evils. Great power came with responsibilities and other bullshit he cared not of but still saw the wisdom behind them.

_So that he could live just a little bit longer, so that he could see other part of this World just a bit more, so that nobody else should take the burden for him. Life was cruel and he had the first hand experience to prove that. He would fight his way, not giving up yet so tired of struggling._

“Well… I will save a lot of money first, then go around the world at least once before accepting though,” Skull conceded. “You only live once and whatever.”

“What?”

“I mean, it sucks. I have to be a baby for the rest of my life, not going to do stunts anymore. But between that and the world ending I will take being a baby. That way I still live. Making lemonade from Life’s given lemons and all that.”

Luce blinked at his words. “I… see. I didn’t see it like that. _Lemons_?”

“Well, I have a lot of bullet points on my bucket list. So, I am going to try and check all those off,” he decided as he stood and dusted off the dirt on his pants. “Being a baby again is going to be an interesting point of view and all that. But I am checking off ‘Saving the World’. This count, right?” Skull hummed to himself, strolling to his bike. It was going to be a pain and a half to figure out what to do with it. Wait… what about money? Ah, screw that, he would cross that bridge when he arrived there.

Alright, going around the World it was. How would it be when he climbed the Mount Everest as a baby?

Well, another World Record? ‘Youngest ever to climb Mount Everest’ sounded _awesome_. With a large grin decorating his face, Skull rode his motorbike down.

‘ _Am I going to crash?'_ he wondered when he found out his short hands could not really reach the steering steel nor his legs was long enough to even ride it properly. ‘ _Crap._ ’

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like the Arcobaleno are not using their real name. What kind of name was Reborn? Or Skull and Colonello? Thus, I feel like they are using fake names to interact with each each other because giving out their real ones is too dangerous or something. However, I cannot decide on their real names, hence the Not-Skull thing.  
> Visit me on my [tumblr](https://kay-yuuki.tumblr.com)!


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